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Dakar hosts a regional consultation for West and Central Africa. More than 14 countries, artisanal fishing organizations will discuss and exchange for three days to develop a regional action plan on small-scale fisheries for the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines to ensure the sustainability of this form of fishing. [19659002] After the adoption of the Voluntary Guidelines for Artisanal Fisheries in 2014, FAO moves to the next stage. This involves the elaboration of a sub-regional action plan to enable the implementation of these voluntary guidelines for small-scale fishing. To this end, Dakar hosts an international meeting of more than 14 countries in Central, North and West Africa. The Fao that offers them this platform wants a better understanding and an appropriation by States of the Voluntary Guidelines. Ndiaga Guèye, head of the Accra-based Regional Office for Africa, hopes that stakeholders, including state representatives, artisanal fishermen's organizations, will come up with ideas, exchange good practices, discuss issues of interest to the region, time to come to the end, to produce a consensual document which, according to him, will make it possible to have a sub-regional action plan "which will have to be promoted and mobilize financial resources", he adds.
A first for the artisanal fishery which is thus equipped with an international instrument. "For a long time, there has never been an international instrument exclusively dedicated to the management of artisanal fisheries," says Guèye. Artisanal fishing plays a vital role in food security and is a livelihood for millions of people in Africa in general, but especially along the West and Central African coast in particular. And among this lot, "there is also an overwhelming majority of women working directly or indirectly in small-scale fisheries," says the head of the FAO Office in Accra.
At the request of developing countries, Fao initiated this platform where the 192 member states of this institution have been meeting for years to negotiate these Voluntary Guidelines in order to improve the governance of artisanal fisheries. Indeed, these cover all that is catch of the artisanal fishing in a responsible way, transformation, marketing. They do not stop there. "These guidelines go through gender, social equity and environmental aspects. It is therefore an international tool that states, sub-regional organizations must rely on to promote small-scale fisheries at the national level, "says Guèye.
An environmental dimension that will interest Senegal. Our country will exploit and produce oil in areas of Saint-Louis Kayar where the main activity remains the artisanal fishing and the livelihood of thousands of people. But for Ndiaga Gueye, we should not oppose these two activities namely the exploitation of oil and fishing. "With intelligence, the State of Senegal can ensure that the two go together," he said. He adds that despite all this, FAO is willing to accompany the populations technically in order to offer them alternatives.
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